I've Infected My Kids and They are Doing Their First Triathlon!

Wow! What an afternoon. My two oldest girls are doing their first triathlon tomorrow in Keller, Texas. We spend hours this afternoon running around, picking up their packets, getting new bike helmets (can’t bike with our skate board or horse back riding helmets according to the rules!), and finding appropriate gear. Luckily my 10 and 12-year-old can fit in my triathlon unitards (good thing I’m a midget ha ha). We even had to find swim caps.

Whew! Gear is all together and ready to go at 6am tomorrow morning. I’m excited. My first tri was at the age of 40! I’m glad my kids can get a taste of the sport I’ve come to love. The race is called the “Monster Kids Triathlon” and looks to be a lot of fun! They have competitors as young as 4 and as old as 13. Picture little kids on tricycles up to early teenagers. What a mix!

The adult sprint triathlon is Sunday, so we get to get up before dawn both days this weekend! I think I’m more excited then the girls, but my 12-year-old was telling everyone in school she was doing a tri and they were all impressed! Wish them luck! Will update with results and even pics!

I just hope they both have fun and maybe even want to do it again!

Run Happy! (and Bike and Swim if you please!)

Strategy + Execution = Success For Life!

Like many people in Southlake, Texas this afternoon, I was reading the new edition of Southlake Style magazine that came in the mail today. After the usual local nonsense, I came across an article by Harold Wilson of Multisport Coaching Systems about weight loss exercise programs for truly obese people. He talked about the fact that most articles spend so much time talking about the overwhelming numbers associated with obesity and of course the associated health risks, but almost never spend much time on how an obese person can actually lose the obese tag.

Harold spent some time talking about the people in the news that have successfully lost the weight (Think “The Biggest Loser” or Jared of Subway…heck, he is even going to try to run the New York City Marathon next month!).

The meat of the article discussed the keys to successful weight loss: strategy + execution = success! Wow! Isn’t that the key to just about everything? But wait, maybe Harold is on to something. I have runners that get so caught up in planning their training program that they have little energy left to execute it. Same goes for weight loss programs. Many people spend all their available energy in the planning, so they never get around to executing it!

So, I will reiterate to you Harold’s tips for weight loss and you will see that they hold truth in all exercise programs!

1. Save most of your energy or effort level for execution
2. Choose workouts that are smart and simple
3. Build your day around your workout and plan ahead
4. Educate yourself on the science of nutrition
5. And Remember these absolute truths:

Discipline is necessary
Consistency is key
Prepare your menu in advance
Do not skip workouts

Like many things in life, profoundly simple, yet simply profound! Thanks Harold!

PS. Since I shared with you Harold’s article, if you find yourself needing more advice you can find him at http://www.getfitgetfast.com/ or at the Southlake Larry North Fitness.

Seems Like Everyone is Running a Fall Marathon, Even Amani Toomer!

I was running around Grapevine Lake this morning at 5:30am and was amazed how many people were out and about. Seems like everyone was going around 20 miles today, so they all started really early. Everyone had a fall marathon on their schedule; some going to Lake Tahoe, some Chicago, some New York. And of course, a lot of people gearing up for the Dallas White Rock Marathon in December.

It is amazing how the marathon bug has bitten so many people! Even Amani Toomer, former New York Giants' wide receiver, is running the New York City Marathon this year for charity. I remember when I planned to run my first marathon in 1999, most people thought I was a little crazy, and the Cowtown Marathon only had less than a thousand people every year. Now, it seems almost everyone is attempting a marathon or two; and the local marathons are busting at the seams with entrants. The Houston Marathon even went to a lottery because it has sold out so quickly the last few years! Wow! So many runners and so many "training theories" for people to hurt themselves with!

Here are a few tips to keep you on the roads and out of my office:

Tip #1: Do not increase your mileage by more than 10% per week. The body grows stronger if it is stressed in small increments, but starts to break down if it is stressed too much. Studies show that increasing your mileage by no more than 10% per week will help you grow stronger without breaking you down. Avoid increasing duration and pace at the same time.

Tip #2: Always follow a hard workout with an easy one. The body’s like a cell phone. If you continue to use it without recharging, it will eventually wear down. By incorporating easy workouts or cross training into your program, you’ll allow your body a chance to rest and repair itself.

Tip#3: Add strength training to your workouts. Strength training is usually absent from most training programs, but cross training with weights is the only component that has been proven to reduce running injuries. Proper strength training can help you overcome muscle imbalances that lead to injury, as well as strengthen connective tissues that help support your joints.

Tip#4: Do regular self-checks. Tune into what your body is telling you. How do your muscles and joints feel? How does your breathing and heart rate feel? Are you straining to keep up your pace? Anything that doesn’t feel the same may be an early sign of overuse. Keep a training log of not only your mileage, but how you feel during and after each workout. Fatigue over a period of a few days is a huge red flag that your body is trying to tell you something.

Tip#5: Respond to pain immediately. If you experience pain during or after a workout, follow the rule of R-I-C-E (rest-ice-compression-elevation). Use an ice massage or cold pack for 10-15 minutes every 4-6 hours to relieve inflammation and swelling. Elevation is also quite helpful in the first 48 hours. Apply a compressive wrap and hang out on the couch for a few hours and rest. After 48-72 hours, if the inflammation has subsided, apply heat to help promote healing.

Tip#6: Do not take pain-relief medication to finish a workout! Non-prescription anti-inflammatory medications can reduce inflammation and pain, but they do not speed healing. Taking anti-inflammatories prior to a workout may decrease your discomfort and allow you to finish a workout, but they also allow you to overstress already damaged tissue. This can prolong the healing process. Pain is a sign you should not ignore!

Tip#7: Choose relative rest over inactivity. Active rest, or easy exercise, is better than inactivity because it stimulates blood flow and promotes healing. If slow running is painless, but picking up the pace is painful, then stick to slow running until you feel better. Or do other activities, like swimming, cycling, or aqua running until you can run pain-free.

Tip#8: Don’t wait too long to seek professional help. If your pain does not respond to a week of R-I-C-E and cutting mileage by at least 50%, see a sportsmedicine specialist. Not only can a professional help you diagnose and treat the condition, but they may also help you determine and biomechanical abnormalities that can lead to recurring injuries.

Tip#9: Try to maintain a positive attitude. You immune system fights injuries with a complex army of nutrients and special cells. But, you immune system doesn’t work alone. Your mind also has a voice in what goes on. Attitudes and feelings are organized in your brain to communicate with your immune system with chemical messengers. A positive attitude can go a along way to help speed healing.

Tip#10: Ease back into your regular training program. Remember, too much, too soon, too fast is what hurt you in the first place. It’s tempting to jump right back in where you left off, but your injured tissue may not be fully recovered. It’s during the first few weeks back that most runners get re-injured. Use the 10% rule to ease back into mileage….

Above all, have fun! Marathon running is a challenge that is mental as well as physical. The miles between 20 and 26.2 take determination, stubborness and probably a tiny bit of inner insanity! Whether you finish in 2 hours or 6+, you are still a marathoner forever after you cross the finish line!

Run Happy! And Injury Free!

The State of the Economy Can Be Accurately Predicted by Women’s Shoe Buying Habits!

A skeptic you say? Here is a true story borrowed from an article in the Chicago Tribune by Barbara Brotman. Turns out there is good evidence that the Dow Jones Industrial Average can be predicted very well by the Nordstrom’s Shoe Index (my favorite shoe store as well!)

"The biggest swing in spending has been in retailers, such as Saks and Nordstrom, that target high-income consumers, a pickup that coincided with the rally in the stock market." — economist Michelle Meyer.

The science of economic analysis has taken a leap forward with the discovery of a new, highly accurate economic indicator: The Nordstrom Shoe Index.

Economists were intrigued to find that statistics on consumers' attitudes toward the economy coincided with the actions of a single consumer in Chicago. Taking a closer look, they found that they could track consumer confidence and its resulting influence on the nation's economy simply by following this consumer's interactions with the shoe department at Nordstrom.

The phenomenon came to light during a recent surge in consumer confidence. Barbara relates that she happened to be at Nordstrom buying eye shadow. Something, possibly a premonition of consumer confidence, drew her to the nearby shoe department. She began browsing high-heeled sandals, though she did not need a pair of high-heeled sandals, as her husband would later point out. But then she saw them: brown leather sandals with that thick-strapped look that stops just short of dominatrix, strips of leather accents in a fetching shade of salmon and a breathtakingly high heel.

She bought them.

The Nordstrom Shoe Index spiked.

The same day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average went up 21 points.

The purchase also mirrored the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index, which in April reached its highest point since September 2008.

Analysts noting the Nordstrom Shoe Index phenomenon were particularly cheered at the price the Nordstrom Shoe Indexer paid — $224.95. They reasoned that consumer confidence had to be surging pretty high for anyone to spend that much on a pair of sandals.

Moreover, the increase in the Nordstrom Shoe Index was accompanied by a high Lying to Spouse score. When her husband asked how much the sandals cost, the consumer claimed they were only $180. Though this still resulted in an increase in the Spousal Irritation Industrials, analysts noted that 20 percent represented an impressive level of lying, significantly above the routine 5 percent spousal lie discount.

However, stock market bears warned of a correction. And sure enough, within days, the Nordstrom Shoe Indexer began to have buyer's regret.

Trying on the shoes at home to defend the "$180" purchase to her spouse, she realized that the heel was so high as to cause intense pain, and not just because of the bunion problem. The heels threw her entire body onto the balls of her feet. She could barely walk in them.

For two days, she vacillated. (Really? Why do we do this to ourselves over cute shoes?)

In the same time span, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 236 points

She brought the shoes into the office one day and tottered along a carpeted hallway, trying to decide whether she could take the pain. An economics debate broke out when several female colleagues stopped to say that her shoes were darling. Upon learning of the pain problem, some counseled her to be practical and return them. Others argued she should man up and wear them no matter how much they hurt because they were so white hot. (Pick some new friends!)

The Dow Jones, aka the Jimmy Choo, rose 49 points, apparently on hope of persuasion.
The direction of the nation's economy hovered in limbo as the Nordstrom Shoe Index progenitor agonized. Stock brokers chain-chewed antacids. Hedge fund managers gnawed on their fingernails. Institutional investors fanned themselves.

Finally, the indexer decided that she couldn't justify spending $224.95 on shoes she could wear only while sitting at her desk.

On Friday, she made the call: Back they would go.

The Nordstrom Shoe Index plummeted.

The Dow Jones dropped 173 points the same day. The Standard and Poor's 500 Index fell 20 points.

Some analysts use complex mathematical formulas to predict the behavior of the economy. Some stock-picking experiments have tried dart boards.

The Nordstrom Shoe Index, however, has earned its place in the economic indicator pantheon. A nation searching for signs of financial direction should consider this:

Barbara laments that she still want a pair of really cute, but lower-heeled, sandals.

Ladies…we all knew our shoe shopping habits were important, but now we know the economy depends on it!

Shop On!

Is Your Metabolism Happy?

Why is it that so many people complain that they eat very little, but are still overweight? I have many triathlete friends that eat way better than I do, yet can’t seem to tame the belly bulge. Then there are people like me that eat everything in sight, and never seem to gain weight. We complain that during times of extreme training that we are hungry constantly and work hard not to drop too much weight! No one feels sorry for us! What’s up with that?

Your metabolism is the key. Most people are somewhere between the two extremes. Their intake, metabolism and output are on a roller coaster ride. If only you can tame the metabolism beast, healthy weight and better performance will follow.

How can we make our metabolism happy? The answer is a healthy, consistent diet and regular exercise routine. The key word is consistent! Food becomes energy at the rate our metabolism dictates. Exercise utilizes this energy at a more efficient rate if our metabolism is fast and happy.

This is not only the key to getting stronger, faster and more efficient but also the million dollar answer for weight loss! Losing weight means taking in less than you put out. You have to take into account your personal BMR (basal metabolic rate) which is one part genetics, one part age and many parts lifestyle habits! Seems simple enough; but if you are on a constant fad or crash diet, your body’s BMR is very low. Hence, you burn much less at rest than a hyper runner like me who eats constantly! I love my BMR! I burn more calories when sleeping than the average person!

So what does all this mean? A person who eats very little but can’t lose weight probably has a slow BMR and is often sluggish in their energy output; while in contrast a person with a fast EMR can eat more calories, utilize them more efficiently and have a higher energy out put!

The formula "energy plus metabolism equals output" means that all three react synergistically. High output is always desired, so in order to affect output, more energy either has to come in, or metabolism has to speed up, or both. Metabolism tends to be the limiter in most cases, since we can choose how much to eat. The volume of output can also be manipulated through programming our metabolism to be happier.

How do we affect our metabolism to achieve our goals? The most logical means to improve metabolism is to do more work. Increase your exercise in either duration or intensity. This will encourage your body to pick up the pace!

Many times your metabolism is low genetically and environmentally for many years and is stubborn to move. It is clinically depressed! The way to jolt it into action is not through starvation, which is often a knee-jerk response to the problem. Steady and consistent eating habits will be supported by good and steady energy inputs and high-energy outputs.

It makes sense that we need to increase our output and eat sensibly and consistently in order to change long-term trends. It is important to remember, this is a gradual process, so a commitment to the course of action is necessary.

Small consistent meals five or six times a day with a gradual increasing exercise program over a period of months leading to years will help kick your metabolism back into its happy place! Patience and discipline are the two primary rules of metabolism repair mechanism.

Almost all of us can improve what we're doing at some part of this equation. Grade yourself honestly. Is your metabolism happy and trusting? Is there enough energy? Is there enough exercise? Too much? Is your metabolism depressed and mad at you having been starved and stuffed with bad food and bad habits? Is there enough energy coming in and where is it going? Where can you improve?

Make your metabolism happy for better race results and an added bonus of a better waist line!

The Barefoot Running Debate Continues

Here we go again....More questions about the benefits of barefoot running. A new biomechanics study concluded that pronation was more controlled in unshod subjects than those that wore shoes. No conclusions were made on whether this translated to less injuries and no long term study of the subjects was performed. Bottom line, in a small group study, the barefoot runners were seen to pronate less than those that were wearing shoes. What does this mean? Not much. More studies of larger groups and over a longer period of time need to be performed, but barefoot running may be a tool to strengthen your feet. Let me emphasize the words "May" and "Tool". Which means a part of your training program, not a license to go chuck your shoes and just head out the door. Let's look a little closer at the recent study:

Some of the reasons which were indicated by the researchers for this healthful barefoot advantage to runners include:

1. The tendency of the foot to flex more while running barefoot.
2. The fact that the foot moves around inside a running shoe less than was originally believed.
3. The distribution and frequency of the ground’s impact forces on the foot has a better and less stressful pattern on bare feet.

All good, valid points. Personally I'm sticking to my Newtons to strengthen my feet and I have an orthotic in them to control my late stage pronation in my forefoot. Without that, I get hurt! But that's just me.

So you want to try barefoot running? A good test to see if you are a good candidate is to balance on one foot on your forefoot, keeping your heel in the neutral (perpendicular to the ground) position and hold that for one minute. If you can do this, you can start a gradual progression to barefoot running. I would go buy a pair of Five Finger Vibrams to protect the sole of your feet, then start with no more than 5 minutes on a track or softer trail surface. See how you feel. Then progress no more than 10 percent no more than 3 days a week. It will take you at least 6 months to work your way up to a reasonable time and pace. (And I still think its crazy, but again....just my personal opinion)

If you want to go totally barefoot without a pair of Vibrams, then you should take careful precautions before running completely barefoot. You must ensure that the track or path you’re running on is a non-abrasive surface, and is completely free of sharp or dangerous objects. Barefoot running is best done on a track with a smooth but tractable surface which you have personally inspected and removed any objects which could cut or damage your foot during running, and learning to run barefoot is a skill and must learned-slowly. SLOWLY!!!

I still think the jury is out on barefoot running. It is the latest fad which may or may not stick, but for those that want to try it.....take my advice and go really really slowly down that path. Most of the injuries we see from barefoot running are from progressing way to quickly!

Race Recovery Secrets Revealed!

How long does it take to recover from a marathon? How long does it take to recover from an Ironman triathlon? How much racing is bad for my body? These are all good questions posed in my office on a regular basis. The problem is that the answer is always, "It depends". Everyone recovers at a different rate. Age, experience and current fitness level are large variables in the equation. I know a marathon runner in town who ran 100 marathons in a less than 10 years; and of course, we have all heard of Dane Rauschenberg who ran 52 marathons in one year for charity and then wrote a book about it! The flip side is that I know runners who can only do one marathon a year without getting hurt and most triathletes only train for one Ironman a year.

So what is the magic formula? How much is too much? I think the first thing to think about is what is your goal? If you are just talking about finishing the marathons and not really having a time crunch, then feel free to do up to six a year but realize that having more than two quality runs in a year is very difficult. The Ironman distance should not be attempted more than 2 or 3 times a year regardless of time goals! Now, for those of us who are addicted to the watch, "racing" a marathon is something that should not be done more than twice a year. "Racing" an Ironman triathlon should only be attempted one a year.

Why is this true? Well, simple math. It takes a minimum of 4 months to train effectively for a marathon and 6 months for an Ironman. Then you need at least one day for every mile you ran and three to five days for every hour your triathlon took. That means a month of recovery before you start to train again after a marathon and at least 6 weeks after a 12 hour Ironman. Last time I checked, there were only 12 months in a year; hence, the common recommendation of racing no more than 2 quality marathons or one quality Ironman triathlon a year.

Why do some people recover faster? Age. My feeling is that youth is wasted on the young. I remember being able to run a marathon and get up and go to work the next day. Now I have to take at least one day off and often take two! Experience does help. Your body has been there before, so it knows it will live. Veterans often have a post-race routine down that helps them recover. (Often this includes the anesthesia known as beer!) If your fitness level is high and your nutritional status is good, you will recover faster.

What can you do to hasten recovery? Walk a cool down after the race. Do not sit down immediately even though your legs are begging you to! Take a 15 to 20 minute walk and stretch gently. An ice bath is best, but very few people I know are that tough. A cool bath followed by stretching before you go to bed is helpful. A large amount of carbohydrates and water also helps. Hence the beer phenomenon! A massage a few days after the race will help you recover. More than anything, do not start training again until you are fully recovered. Many injuries occur due to too much, too soon, too fast and too fatigued syndrome!

So how much is too much? Again, the answer is always, "It depends." Listen to your body. Really listen and stop being stubborn or stupid! If you start training and you are exhausted, you are doing too much. If you are spending too much time in my office and less on your bike, you are doing too much. The answer is really simple stupid. Listen to your body and it will tell you how much is too much.

Bottom line: Let your body fully recover from your races and quality times will be recorded. Race only one to two marathons or one Ironman triathlon a year. As for other distances, keep in mind that you need one day for every mile of a running race and at least 3 days for every hour you raced in triathlon. Anything shorter, you better take off your watch and go for the finish instead of the time and prepare yourself to spend some quality time with your local sports medicine physician!

Run Happy! And Recover Well!